Quick sweep today, clean enough?

[SKIN052]

Like I have stated before, I do a thorough cleaning once a month but I decided to do a quick cleaning from the bottom up today since I had time and was just curious for whatever reason. I typically do a top down clean so I can get the cap and plus I also take off the black pipe from the stove and scrub that as well. Been running a few really strong fires lately so I was not concerned with the black pipe. As for the cap, I have a clear view of it from my back deck and nothing looks concerning there, no spark arrest to clog up.
Short of pulling a cloth though with the poly brush this is about as good as I can get with my brush. The brownish stuff is just loose dust like material that I could wipe off with my hand. It looks that way all the way up even though it looks really black in the pic it really is not at all. looks the all the way up. So, what do you people think, good enough?

 

[begreen]

Looks like a shot from a robot proctologist. :-S :lol: Fire her up.

 

[brogsie]

Skin,
Just wondering how do you clean from the bottom without making a mess in the house and on yourself.
I have a new chimney I put a tee with a removable cap but not sure how to approach cleaning from the bottom.

 

[SKIN052]

BeGreen, indeed weird looking pic, odd to get a camera in there. Plus I kinda do it secretly so the neighbors and my kids don't think I am nuts, lol.

Brogsie, for me the T is located outside about 2' off the ground. I simply take off the bottom access cap and bend the rod and brush into position. I keep pushing and adding rods until I reach the top. On the way down I pull back maybe a foot and then push it up and down vigorously for a few shakes and do this all the way down the chimney. The first time I did it I rigged up a bag and taped it off to catch the mess. I quickly realized that the bag was not worth the effort and never did it again. As for myself, I wear my work clothes and generally don't give a crap if I get messy or not. It's gonna happen so why fight it. I have a bad habit off rubbing my face when I am full of soot and usually walk into the house with the kids laughing at me.

 

[brogsie]

Thanks Skin,

My chimney is inside the house behind the stove so I'll have to figure out something else.

 

[ansehnlich1]

Looks like a shot from a robot proctologist. :-S :lol: Fire her up.

x2+, fire her up!

 

[argus66]

looks like a dinosaur eye to me. scary....

 

[cptoneleg]

Looks like the eyeball of someone really loaded

 

[pen]

hell, get over it, they are your family! My wife and neighbors just move their head side to side slowly when they see me climbing up on the roof w/ the IR temp gun, or shining a spot light at the cap to make sure the mesh I am suspicious of didn't instantaneously plug in the day or two since I checked it last.

That's about as clean as they get pal. NIce work. The real question is how long has it been since you cleaned it last and how much accumulation did you remove and what did it look it?

pen

 

[firefighterjake]

Looks good . . . remember you don't need this clean enough to eat off of it . . . only clean enough to knock off any combustible creosote that could potentially block the draft or ignite.